


Silver Spoon Normandy

by Seagoatink



Series: Survival Isn't Pretty [8]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Injury Recovery, Light Angst, Post-Reaper War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 00:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8124004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seagoatink/pseuds/Seagoatink
Summary: His mandibles flared, something Shepard assumed meant he was smiling. At least in human terms he might be smiling. It was suspicious. “Don’t make me do this, Shepard,” Garrus warned. His mandibles flared again. She made no effort to find out what he meant. “Here comes the spaceship!” Garrus chuckled. He was doing his best to hold his hand steady on its way to her mouth. “Pchoooo!”Oh he was getting his kicks out of this.





	

The Normandy and several fleets of other vessels were not planning on leaving Earth’s system for some time. Repairs needed to be done and people accounted for. Medbays were bustling and full to max capacity. Those still able-bodied were helping in every way they could. Garrus received some patching from Dr. Chakwas, allowing him to walk with only a slight limp. It would have been far better if he decided he would go easy on himself and rest, but Shepard was in worse condition than him.

Tali nearly died. She was still aboard the Floatilla, and the Normandy’s crew anxiously awaited news on her health. 

Of the three on the final push, Garrus considered himself luckiest in terms of condition and health. He could walk, or hobble around. Tali was probably receiving surgery. Shepard could hardly sit up, let alone feed herself. It was a surprise she was not aboard a medical vessel for attention, however Admiral Hackett decided it best and most secure for the commander to stay with her crew.

Once her condition stabilized, Dr. Chakwas allowed her to stay in her room, on terms that she stay in bed. Cheska normally would never agree to such terms. Her body on the other hand made sure she could not get up let alone feed herself without intense pain.

Joker heard this and immediately formulated a plan. Not so much formulated as noticed Garrus would go visit her around meal time. So he called the turian to the cockpit to have a little chat.

Cheska heard the doors open and close as Garrus entered with her human food and his dextro-amino food. Staring at her fish in their giant tank was calming and she realized she had fallen asleep watching them more times than she wanted to admit. “Hey,” she croaked.

The turian sat at the other side of the bed as his commanding officer struggled to sit up. “Commander…” he muttered with concern causing her to stop struggling against herself.

“Sorry... “ she mumbled, “Habit…” When Garrus loaded the fork with what looked like mashed potatoes and peas, the commander shook her head. “You eat first. Mine’s still steaming.”

The turian laughed and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth jokingly. “It’s not that bad, Jimmy was eating his a little bit ago. Yours has had plenty of time to cool off.”

“He’d eat his meals straight off the skillet if he could,” Cheska countered as her eyebrows furrowed together. “You eat some first.” When he failed to set down the utensil, she eyed him suspiciously. “Garrus…” she growled. Her arms folded across her chest.

His mandibles flared, something Shepard assumed meant he was smiling. At least in human terms he might be smiling. It was suspicious. “Don’t make me do this, Shepard,” Garrus warned. His mandibles flared again. She made no effort to find out what he meant. “Here comes the spaceship!” Garrus chuckled. He was doing his best to hold his hand steady on its way to her mouth. “Pchoooo!”

Oh he was getting his kicks out of this.

“Could you not?” Shepard grumbled, holding her lips as close together as she could manage.

Garrus shook his head. The spoon backed down for a moment. “Oh right, you’re a commander of a spaceship. An Adult Commander,” he said pointedly. The spaceship started up again as a low hum in his chest. “This is the Normandy, requesting permission to dock.”

“Fu-” Cheska began to yell just as the Normandy bee-lined into her mouth. She swallowed the mashed potatoes and peas as she glared up at him. “As I was saying: Fuck You.”

Garrus laughed this time, unable to hold himself back. “It wasn’t that hard now was it?” He asked coyly, knowing full well she would have hit him had she been mobile. 

“Fucking demeaning as all Hell is what it was.” Her arms fell and her hands rested on her stomach. “If I weren’t in so much damn pain, I’d smack you,” grumbled Cheska. “Where the fuck did you learn that from anyway, Garrus?”

He hesitated to say anything. He could have played it off as something turian parents do as well with their children. But Garrus had waited too long to claim it was a turian norm. The commander was glaring at him now. Silently she demanded a name or a vid or a news show. Something! “Joker.”

The commander raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Figures,” she grumbled rolling her eyes.

“So that’s something humans do with their kids,” Garrus said as he loaded up another spoonful, “the whole spacecraft thing?” The commander nodded. She was actually letting him spoon-feed her now. “Your parents did that for you?”

“Grandparents,” Shepard stated, pausing to chew her food. “My parents were busy taking colonist courses for a while. Then we moved to Mindoir.” The Silver Spoon Normandy or SS Normandy loaded up with some meat this time before delivering its supplies to the commander. Thanks to the meat, it took her a little longer to chew her food. “I don’t think most kids remember being spoon-fed, but I was sick often, or too stubborn to eat.”

The turian placed the spoon on the plate and took a moment to enjoy his food. “So, if we adopt a couple of human kids…” he trailed off.

Cheska bit her lip and looked away. Her forehead wrinkled up. Telltale signs to other humans she was distressed. With his time in C-Sec and his training there, she was sure he knew what her expressions meant even though he was still unreadable to her. “... I… Garrus, I don’t know about kids,” she admitted suddenly.

“You have enough of them here in the military?” He asked with his mouth full. The turian knew she invested a lot of energy in her crew, especially in those like Vega and Cortez. Spirits, she hardly had an appetite, she was so worried about Tali.

Even after having a few more bites of food, the commander was quiet. It was difficult to decipher if she was upset about his comment or trying to find the right words.

Again, he set the spoon down. “I shouldn’t have brought it up, right?”

Cheska frowned. “No. Yes and no. But mostly no. No. Okay, no. I care for my crew but that’s a loaded question, Hun.”

Hun. That was a new one. It was not a turian word, but it was so common in human vids that every turian had heard of it. Those with human relationships tended to use it casually in conversation with their family members. Something about that word made a warmness bubble up in his chest. “Hun…” he murmured with a hint of sentimentality.

“Another human thing-” Shepard began to ramble.

But Garrus cut her off. “A cute human thing.”

“Aww you think I’m cute!”

Garrus laughed. “Yeah when you’re not single handedly destroying the entire Reaper threat or running face first into a mob of smugglers. You’re cute when you make use of those human terms.”

“Maybe you can teach me some turian ones?” Cheska asked, a hint of a smile lighting her face.

“Maybe, Ches.” His mandibles flared. “Maybe.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not dead. I just got out of my abusive mother's house. I'll be working on getting back to Ohio from Minnesota here soon. Like Shepard in this story, I'm in a ton of pain. I was going to write some angst but I decided to finish this prompt instead. Hope you enjoyed :)


End file.
